Less than a year away from a college degree in land surveying and mapping sciences, Leo Van Beck learned one of his most useful lessons off campus last fall.
Literally and figuratively speaking: A map is pretty useless if you can’t see it.
The bowhunter from Sauk Centre, Minnesota, might not have possessed a road atlas when he struck out for the two-thirds-mile hike into public hunting land on Nov. 1, but he felt confident his instincts would steer him to the setup he’d discovered five days earlier, when the sun was shining.
That first evening hunting/scouting trip was on Sunday, Oct. 27. The going was rough, through the thickest terrain he’d ever seen, but well worth the effort.
“When the tangled mess finally opened up, there were well used trails, scrapes and rubs everywhere,” Leo said. “And the sign was fresh, too. It had been raining, and the prints in the scrapes were made after the rain.”
The college senior found a great place for a treestand near the convergence of two heavily used trails skirting flooded ground.
Leo had no classes scheduled for the following Friday, Nov. 1, so he decided to pack a lunch and hunt all day in his new honey hole. Eager to get situated as early as possible before sunrise, he pulled into his parking spot two hours before legal shooting light.
Walking into a maze of trees and brush in the pitch-black with only a headlamp isn’t a walk in the park. Leo got turned around in short order, making a complete circle before realizing he was getting nowhere.
“I was trying to go slow and quiet,” he said, “but I finally just gave up and plowed my way through the brush. It took me an hour and 15 minutes to get back to my spot.”
The buck he shot – the very one he’d hoped to see – came in on one of the nearby trails.
One of his uncles taped the antlers.
“I was thinking somewhere between 180 and 190,” Leo said, “so when he yelled out 190, I felt pretty good. But then he said, ‘Wait. I forgot to add the inside spread!’
“It was surreal,” he added.
Its BTR score is 214 4/8 inches. You can read more about Leo’s history with the deer in an upcoming issue of RACK magazine.
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